Worker Protections at Sea: Climate change and life aboard distant water fishing vessels

Abstract

This short essay discusses the impact of rising temperatures on workers’ health in ocean-based labour sectors, such as industrial fishing, which have attracted little scholarly and activist attention. It provides some reflections on the relationship between a heating planet and work by exploring how climate change can lead to injury and death among distant water fishing workers. I focus on two climate change outcomes that impact fishers: the increasing salinity of water and the dramatic reduction in fish species.